Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The Jarring Irish: Postwar Immigration to the Heart of Empire

The Jarring Irish: Postwar Immigration to the Heart of Empire In 1948, as citizens of Birmingham and London attempted to recover from the destructive effects of World War Two, they were perhaps unaware that another barrage was about to be unleashed upon them, this time in the shape of migrants rather than bombs. As commonwealth and Irish migrants streamed into postwar England, they instigated enduring tensions around issues of citizenship, housing, and employment, which irrevocably altered the makeup of the nation in the process. Mostly poor workers from Ireland, the Caribbean and South Asia, these migrants were welcomed bluntly with signs stating, "No Blacks, no dogs, no Irish." My study of the experiences of white and non-white immigrants in this period aims to add to existing political analyses with a sociocultural exploration of migrants' adaptations to life in post-imperial Britain. By analyzing the Irish experience as well as those of non-white immigrants, I attempt to fragment monolithic assumptions of a singular "whiteness," which implies that Irish migrants adapted in postwar British society free of the ethnic tensions that other migrants endured. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Radical History Review Duke University Press

The Jarring Irish: Postwar Immigration to the Heart of Empire

Radical History Review , Volume 2009 (104) – Apr 1, 2009

Loading next page...
 
/lp/duke-university-press/the-jarring-irish-postwar-immigration-to-the-heart-of-empire-dwGhqDScpM

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Duke University Press
ISSN
0163-6545
eISSN
1534-1453
DOI
10.1215/01636545-2008-070
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In 1948, as citizens of Birmingham and London attempted to recover from the destructive effects of World War Two, they were perhaps unaware that another barrage was about to be unleashed upon them, this time in the shape of migrants rather than bombs. As commonwealth and Irish migrants streamed into postwar England, they instigated enduring tensions around issues of citizenship, housing, and employment, which irrevocably altered the makeup of the nation in the process. Mostly poor workers from Ireland, the Caribbean and South Asia, these migrants were welcomed bluntly with signs stating, "No Blacks, no dogs, no Irish." My study of the experiences of white and non-white immigrants in this period aims to add to existing political analyses with a sociocultural exploration of migrants' adaptations to life in post-imperial Britain. By analyzing the Irish experience as well as those of non-white immigrants, I attempt to fragment monolithic assumptions of a singular "whiteness," which implies that Irish migrants adapted in postwar British society free of the ethnic tensions that other migrants endured.

Journal

Radical History ReviewDuke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2009

There are no references for this article.